it was not a war of self-defense. it was organized against a country that had never attacked the united states, that had no capacity nor intention of attacking the united states. and it-- 44,088 american families without a son or husband or daughter or wife at the table next christmas. >> woodruff: mark shields, david brooks, thank you both. and mark and david keep up the talk on the double header recorded in our newsroom. among tonight's topics, congressional escapes and march madness. that will be posted at the top of the rundown later this evening. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day: president obama told jordan's king abdullah he's worried that neighboring syria will become a haven for extremists. parents and teachers in chicago vowed to fight back against the city's plans to close 54 public schools and the senate moved toward passing a budget bill-- >> woodruff: online, we look ahead to a topic that will be in the news next week: same sex marriage. hari sreenivasan explains. >> sreenivasan: the sup